As an Occupational Therapist with over 20 years of experience in Australia and England, Ann has a depth and breadth of skill and understanding of the potential impact of arthritic conditions on everyday life.

She is able to provide the following:

• Education including joint protection strategies
• Splinting including fabrication of custom made thermoplastic splints and fitting of functional or off the shelf varieties
• Assessments and interventions to optimise function and promote increased occupational performance in daily life

As well as specifically indicated interventions, Ann is particularly interested in working with people to facilitate their ongoing self- management of their condition optimising occupational performance and quality of life.

Ann has extensive clinical experience working as an occupational therapist in acute hospital settings. Over the past 17 years she has specialised in the areas of cancer and palliative care with an emphasis on functional independence and improving quality of life.

She is able to provide:

• Comprehensive assessment of clients with lymphoedema or vascular conditions
• Treatment, support and ongoing management of lymphoedema/vascular conditions
• Assessment, prescription, fitting and advice  regarding compression garments (custom and off the shelf) for lymphoedema, vascular, travel, post DVT and pregnancy
• Palliative oedema management

She has a special interest in the management of oedema in the palliative patient and is passionate about improving quality of life for this patient group. She is currently involved in research activities to improve patient care.

Danielle has clinical experience in providing assessments and interventions for people with hand and upper limb conditions. Prior to working in hand injury management, she has worked as an occupational therapist in a variety of adult settings including general medical, neurology, orthopaedics, surgical, and emergency.  Danielle is able to provide the following services:

• Splinting including fabrication of custom made thermoplastic splints and fitting of functional or off the shelf varieties
• Scar management
• Oedema management
• Functional assessments, retraining and development of home programs for enhanced fine motor skills, strength and development of in hand manipulation skills
• Surgical and trauma related hand injuries

Danielle is also trained in mobilisation splinting and manual oedema mobilisation for sub-acute upper limb oedema. She enjoys researching innovative and evidence based techniques to ensure her patients receive the most up-to-date care.

Debbie graduated from Brunel University, London in 1995. Since then she has had 22 years’ experience working in a variety of mental health settings and providing stress management interventions in both inpatient/outpatient Oncology settings at the Mater Health Services.

She has expertise in the following areas:

• Stress and anxiety management, with a particular interest in relaxation and mindfulness based cognitive therapy
• Symptom management during cancer treatment, for example symptoms of fatigue and insomnia
• Supporting people with coping strategies for depression and other mental health concerns
• Coaching to assist people to reach health goals using an Acceptance Commitment therapy focus

Gillian has vast experience working as an Occupational Therapist in hospital and community settings both within Australia and overseas. Her main area of interest is working with infants/young children and their families to achieve their potential with their social/emotional, early cognitive, play, fine motor and self-help skills.

Through Health Wellness Gillian can work with families to:

• Facilitate early parent/child relationships and promote baby’s social/emotional development through learning to read, infant cues, infant massage techniques and  learning through play
• Understand how our sensory systems develop/work and how our response to information received through our senses influences our behaviour
• Support the development of young children’s cognitive, play, fine motor and self-help skills to assist them to participate in family and community activities to the best of their ability

Gillian firmly believes that parents know their children best and works with families to establish and prioritise goals together. Play and fun are fundamental to her strategies in achieving these.

Lyndal has extensive experience working in partnership with families and other members of the multidisciplinary team providing holistic services for infants and children who have a broad range of feeding difficulties. Lyndal was involved in establishing the Mater Children’s Hospital Multidisciplinary Paediatric Tube Weaning service which continues through Health & Wellness.

Lyndal also has extensive experience working with infants (premmies, new born, & babies with complex conditions) and their families. Through H&W Lyndal offers the following services:

• Multidisciplinary Feeding Clinic – specialist assessment of infant and childhood feeding difficulties; including assessment for and management of tube feeding/weaning
• Assessment and intervention for infants born preterm or with complex conditions (medical, developmental, upper limb) and/or with parental concern about development, daily routines and activities (settling; feed-sleep routines; play & learning)

Lyndal is an Advanced Clinician who strives to provide excellent and evidenced based OT services that are respectful of the needs and priorities of families and children.

Lyndal enjoys working with other members of the multidisciplinary team, to help infants and children reach their potential to engage in activities that are relevant and meaningful, and achieve satisfying outcomes for families.

Merilyn has extensive clinical experience having worked in mental health facilities, community health, and in acute hospital settings. For the past 20 years, Merilyn has been providing stress & anxiety management counselling and symptom management in the oncology setting at Mater and she offers the following services:

• Mindfulness Based  Cancer Recovery Group programs for cancer survivors
• Individual mindfulness based counselling for anxiety and depression
• Stress management
• Mindfulness for pain management
• Strategies to improve or better manage memory and attention deficits, fatigue, sleep disturbance, peripheral neuropathy, needle and procedural anxiety as part of cancer treatment.

Merilyn is passionate about supporting individuals to reconnect with their own sense of control and maintaining optimal quality of life from diagnosis of cancer through to recovery post cancer treatment (survivorship).

Sarah has extensive experience with working with families and children who experience difficulty fulfilling their potential in their daily lives or “occupations”. She has worked in the disability services sector as well as in private practice with children with a range of diagnoses.

At the Health and Wellness clinic, Sarah can see children to work on:  

• Fine motor and handwriting skills
• School readiness and general school skills
• Social skills and engagement
• Feeding difficulties and fussy eating
• Toileting difficulties
• General development skills
• Pretend play
• Sensory processing and self-regulation

Sarah is passionate about working in partnership with families to achieve meaningful outcomes for children. Her goal is to build on families’ strengths and engage them as fully as possible in the therapeutic process.